President ‘very good’ again in SWS poll

President Aquino’s net satisfaction rating rose in March, a reversal from last December’s double-digit dip, the latest survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The survey, conducted from March 19 to 22, found that Aquino’s net satisfaction score increased by four points from 55 (72 percent satisfied minus 17 percent dissatisfied) at the end of 2012 to 59 (74 percent satisfied minus 15 percent dissatisfied).

The survey, first published in BusinessWorld, used 1,200 face-to-face interviews nationwide and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

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Earl G. Parreño, a political analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, said the Aquino administration had been delivering on its anticorruption promise and pursuing programs such as the cash transfer and universal healthcare, which aim at improving the welfare of the poor.

“The people’s expectations of what the government should do are being met,” Parreño said in a phone interview.

He added that the government should boost its efforts in attracting more investments that would generate more jobs particularly in tourism and local industries.

Aquino’s latest rating is considered “very good” but still below his highest so far, 67 (77 percent satisfied minus 10 dissatisfied), obtained in August last year.

The President’s high approval ratings were an offshoot of the people’s “abiding confidence” in him and strong support for his reforms, Malacañang said Monday.

“The results of these surveys reflect the Filipino people’s abiding confidence in the President, and their support for the reforms that he continues to institute throughout the country,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Lacierda credited government investments in social services, health and education, and strategic focusing of resources on agriculture, tourism and infrastructure, and the “culture of integrity in governance” for the “renewal of the people’s trust in their leaders.”

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“All these have also led to the affirmation of the international community in our country’s progress, the latest evidence of which is the credit ratings upgrade from Fitch Ratings, placing our country at investment grade for the first time in its history,” he said, reacting to latest surveys by SWS and Pulse Asia.

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